Deloitte Is Looking To AI To Help Avoid Mass Layoffs in Future (bloomberg.com) 40
The giants of the consulting world face an unusual quandary this year: many of them are in the process of dismissing hundreds of staffers even after they hired thousands of college graduates to deal with new demand. Now, one of the biggest of them all is looking to AI to change that. From a report: Deloitte is using AI to evaluate existing staffers' skills and map out plans that would shift employees away from quieter parts of the business and into roles that are more in demand. It's part of a broader bet by the professional services firm that the technology will allow it to moderate hiring growth over time.
The moves come after Deloitte added 130,000 staffers this year. But in the midst of those hirings, though, the firm warned thousands of staffers in the US and UK that their jobs were at risk of becoming redundant after the company was forced to restructure certain areas of the business in response to a slowdown in demand. "It is obviously a great objective to be able to avoid large swings of hirings and layoffs," said Stevan Rolls, global chief talent officer at Deloitte. "You could always be more efficient and effective about finding the right people."
The moves come after Deloitte added 130,000 staffers this year. But in the midst of those hirings, though, the firm warned thousands of staffers in the US and UK that their jobs were at risk of becoming redundant after the company was forced to restructure certain areas of the business in response to a slowdown in demand. "It is obviously a great objective to be able to avoid large swings of hirings and layoffs," said Stevan Rolls, global chief talent officer at Deloitte. "You could always be more efficient and effective about finding the right people."
They're a layoff company (Score:2)
Re:They're a layoff company (Score:4, Informative)
They saw an increase in demand, hired people, and then demand fell again.
The problem is AI.
The company I work for used to spend money on consultants. But now we just go to ChatGPT and type "Give me a consulting report for a typical software company".
If we compare the reports from the "Big Four"[1] to the output of ChatGPT, the quality is comparable. Close enough that it is no longer sensible to pay for the advice.
[1] Big Four: Deloitte, PWC, KPMG, EY
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Uh oh. Now it isn't just consulting employees worried about obsolescence via AI, it's entire companies and an entire (useless and parasitic) industry.
Re:They're a layoff company (Score:4, Insightful)
From the examples I have seen, the core problems for the Big Four is that their reports are pretty bad, outdated, meaningless and bereft of insight. This is just what I have seen in the IT and IT security field were just running down a checklist without actual understanding simply does not cut it. I would not be surprised if they do as badly in other areas.
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Yep, that sounds exactly like the level of insight I have seen in these fuckups. I have also seen an example of these "role concepts" that are completely unusable due to excessive complexity and only complete morons would propose or use them. Difference is, in my case the model was used. Lead to the department head having to spend 3 days or so every month affirming every role was correct and needed. He left after doing for a year or two. And no, he was not involved in the decision to use that.
Increasing com
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Now they just need to take that final leap, where they don't bother to ask ChatGPT anymore since the output is worthless anyway.
Sounds very hypocritical.. (Score:2)
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Soon AI will find that people can do jobs like cleaning floors , watering plants in the office etc. So the management team will propose them new role instead of laying off. But who hired thousands of people in a first place? Guess who - not AI.
I suppose I'm not against return to office anymore, then.
skill maps? Will they have good bosses or PHB set? (Score:5, Interesting)
skill maps? Will they have good bosses or PHB's set the base line skills?
Will there be BS to game like
lines of code?
number of tickets done (and the people who can take one task and trun it into 3-4 different tickets look better then the one who just does it as one)
work units done (so people who do lot's of smaller quick tasks look better then the people doing the longer tasks)
sales calls done?
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My resume and all of my email will now contain a lot more buzzwords, AI has to learn about me somehow. What happens when I align with the CEO role for less than the CEO makes?
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Counting metrics are always a favorite, because they deliver hard numbers and can be done easily. That these numbers are typically meaningless and often misleading requires actual insight to see and that one is not a skill valued in the Big Four and many other places.
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I'll bet #2 data point is salary (Score:2)
At my last job, providing you could initialize and pass off a dozen or so jira tickets, you appeared to be productive enough.
No idea what they are doing (Score:5, Interesting)
There's a slowdown in business, but they hired 130,000 people??
Re:No idea what they are doing (Score:4, Interesting)
its more an organizational problem than 'doesn't know what its doing'
Every larger firm that decides it wants to make any significant structural changes runs into stuff like that.
The problem is often upper management can't or does not believe they can communicate the plan until it is time to pull the trigger because the people that will not longer have a place, or no longer have the place they want will immediately leave crippling current operations. Other people will start fighting and jockeying for positions, etc.
The problem is though if you tell middle management, hey don't hire - while they are looking are revenue projections and capacity planning information for their group that says to them 'you should hire' they start asking 'why am I being told not to hire, what's happening...' Then the rumors start flying, and that is almost as bad as the truth being out there as far as keeping the existing corporate machine running.
This is one of the reasons you see so many mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and spinoffs. It becomes easier to sell a entire department or line of business than it to move stuff to a different spot on the org chart.
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But, 120,000?
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The more people involved, the more this problem compounds itself. Large companies are exactly where you see it the most.
They don't want to reallocate (Score:2)
They probably just want to get rid of "geezers" and in their place hire gullible buzzword & fad humpers instead to stick CryptoGPT Decentralized JSON Edge Clouds on everything to impress gullible investors. (Wait, is "crypto" passe already? Lost track.)
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This isn't an article about AI. It is an article about a company that seems to have no idea what they are doing.
No, it's a company in search of a scapegoat.
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Makes sense (Score:2)
Deloitte appears to be a CPA firm, they do auditing and tax services. They employ almost half a million people and earned $65 billion in 2023, so pretty large. The business is probably more sensitive to economic conditions than some.
It isn't unusual for a company to have open jobs available in some areas at the same time as they are laying people off elsewhere. It makes sense to try to determine where some of those surplus folks could fit in, and it probably isn't much of a stretch for a machine learning a
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Leadership of Deloitte and other copy-cat firms such as KPMG etc are completely incapable of having an original thought. They only know to do what others are doing. They all hire at one, and all fire at once. It's all about the appearance of running a business, given that they produce no tangible product or useful services. I'm just amazed that anyone falls for their snake oil anymore.
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Not defending Deloitte, but they do appear to haul in considerable revenue so somebody thinks they are doing something worthwhile.
As for "original thought", it probably isn't original thinking to use AI for this purpose and no doubt they are paying some other company to do it for them, but at least they are trying.
This raises the question: (Score:2)
Hired too quickly (Score:5, Insightful)
Every time I see mass hiring I know mass firing is coming. Even something like a company claiming they are building a new group I've had many coworkers leave to take what is seen as a big opportunity and find out they are being fire 6 months later when they cancel the new group. The only jobs I take are "slow to hire, slow to fire". They may drag their feet in the hiring process but they are stable.
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Every time I see mass hiring I know mass firing is coming.
It makes sense.
When business is increasing, it is better to overshoot and later cut back than to undershoot and miss out on growth and opportunities.
This is one reason companies grow faster where labor markets are flexible. They can hire quickly, knowing they can trim back later if needed.
Avoid? (Score:2)
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Indeed. They are probably just using the "Big Lie" approach.
big lies from big companies (Score:2)
here's the truth:
We're using AI to assess our employees and will use the results to downsize and reduce cost burdens; the people that mistakenly misread the future will not be affected nor be held accountable
No need to point out the ironic truth that AI was used to justify both the hiring and firing of these folks
Yours truthfully,
P.T. Cheatham
Director of Dirtbag Deceits
Robots Don't Get Laid Off (Score:1)
Bargain (Score:2)
Please allow to me laugh first in consultingish (Score:3)
Ha Ha (Score:1)
Wow! You would think that would be a bad move.
But, since the idiots in the C suites that hire them are just as stupid, I guess it won't matter.